Life stirs in Gaza as ceasefire holds

Life stirs in Gaza : A Gaza woman mourns during a funeral of one of her relative, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike a truce agreed on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Life in Gaza resumed some semblance of normality yesterday as a long-term truce took hold following a deal hailed by Israel and Hamas as 'victory' in the 50-day war.

Millions in and around the war-torn enclave enjoyed a welcome night of peace during which there were no strikes on Gaza, nor Palestinian rockets fired at Israel, the Israeli army said.

"We were able to sleep!" said a Gazan man, Alaa al-Jaro. "We had the best sleep ever after the Israeli aggression ended."

The agreement, effective from 1600 GMT Tuesday, saw the warring sides agree to a "permanent" ceasefire which Israel said would not be limited by time, in a move hailed by Washington, the United Nations and top world diplomats.

Both Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, the de facto authority in Gaza, hailed the ceasefire as a victory.

But commentators took a more realistic perspective. "A draw" was the headline in Maariv newspaper.

A Palestinian family ride on top of a horse cart as they head home with their belongings in the Shejaiya neighborhood, yesterday. Photo: AFP

halt their fire out of exhaustion after seven weeks of fighting that claimed the lives of 2,143 Palestinians and 70 on the Israeli side.

Under the deal, Israel will ease restrictions on the entry of goods, humanitarian aid and construction materials into Gaza, and expand the offshore area open to Palestinian fishermen to six nautical miles.

But talks on Hamas demands for a port and an airport and the release of prisoners, as well as Israel's calls to disarm militant groups, are delayed until negotiators return to Cairo within the coming month.

Even ahead of the Cairo talks, Israel staked out a firm stance on how it will approach the upcoming negotiations.

"There will be no port, no airport and no entry of materials that could be used to produce rockets or build tunnels," said deputy foreign minister Tzahi HaNegbi, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"That will be our position which we will present at the negotiations in Cairo," he told public radio.

Israel has consistently linked Gaza's reconstruction with its demilitarisation, with former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror saying Hamas must choose between its desire to see Gaza rebuilt and its desire to re-arm.

"Either they will give up reconstruction, or if they want it, they have to give up the dream of being a military force on the ground," he told journalists.

A Palestinian girl walks on the rubble strewn ceiling of her family's home after she and other members of her family returned to their partially destroyed house early yesterday in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood which was one of the hardest hit by the fighting. Photo: AFP

Israeli officials were quick to portray the ceasefire as a resounding success which ended in both military and political defeat for Hamas.

"For years Hamas has prepared a number of very big operations for a war against Israel, involving rockets, tunnels and terror attacks and all of these met a crushing response from the IDF (army)," said Netanyahu's spokesman Liran Dan.

"Hamas started this (war) with a clear declaration that it wouldn't stop without an end to the blockade, a port and an airport," he told army radio.

"It didn't get anything that it wanted."

But Hamas too claimed victory, saying it caused Israel heavy losses, in a reference to the 64 soldiers killed in the fighting in its biggest military loss since 2006.

"The Palestinian resistance achieved a military victory before the war was over because it stood firm in the face of the arsenal of Zionist terrorism," the Islamist movement said in a statement.

A World Food Programme aid convoy crossed into Gaza from Egypt for the first time since 2007, carrying enough food to last 150,000 people for five days, the Geneva-based agency said.